Crowdfunded Solar Investments for the Global South

Published by

Jul 1. 2017

TRINE’s crowdin­vest­ing model for fin­an­cing solar en­ergy solu­tions provides elec­tri­city to com­munit­ies that can­not bear the up­front costs them­selves, while de­liv­er­ing a fin­an­cial re­turn for in­vestors. With an investment minimum of only $25, the start-up makes it easy for even small-scale in­vestors to profit from con­trib­ut­ing to im­prove ac­cess to re­new­able en­ergy in de­vel­op­ing coun­tries, in the pro­cess also im­prov­ing live­li­hoods, and mit­ig­at­ing CO2 emis­sions from sources such a ker­osene.

TRINE care­fully vets po­ten­tial pro­jects so it can of­fer sound in­vest­ment op­por­tun­it­ies to cus­tom­ers. Since its launch in 2016, the plat­form has helped fin­ance pro­jects for worth more than €500,000, de­liv­er­ing electricity to more than 48 000 people and re­du­cing CO2 emis­sions by 7,000 tons. The im­pact from a pi­lot in­vest­ment pro­ject saw 180% more girls go­ing to school and a 72% re­duced us­age of ker­osene.

Why you should care

En­ergy poverty is a crit­ical is­sue for 1.2 bil­lion people in re­mote com­munit­ies around the world. Many solar en­ergy en­tre­pren­eurs in de­vel­op­ing coun­tries are wait­ing to be able to scale their busi­ness with fair loans at reas­on­able interest rates. The solu­tion fills a fin­an­cing gap and demo­crat­izes fin­an­cing of solar en­ergy, of­fer­ing the po­ten­tial to re­place ker­osene and other harm­ful fuels.

HOW THE GLOBAL GOALS ARE ADDRESSED

No Poverty

TRINE’s crowdfunding allows access to electricity in the poorest areas of the world, helping to bring people out of poverty.

Good health and well-being

By introducing a replacement for kerosene, TRINE can help reduce deaths linked to burning solid fuels for cooking.

Small-scale solar power can catalyze further sustainable economic growth by providing cheap and clean electricity. It also bypasses the challenges of expensive power transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Sustainable cities and communities

Delivering solar power early on during the urbanization transition facilitates a sustainable urban growth trajectory.

Climate action

TRINE estimates that by 2026, this solution can save 3.7 million tons of CO2 annually.

GLOBAL GOALS ADDRESSED

TRINE’s crowdfunding allows access to electricity in the poorest areas of the world, helping to bring people out of poverty.

By introducing a replacement for kerosene, TRINE can help reduce deaths linked to burning solid fuels for cooking.

Small-scale solar power can catalyze further sustainable economic growth by providing cheap and clean electricity. It also bypasses the challenges of expensive power transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Delivering solar power early on during the urbanization transition facilitates a sustainable urban growth trajectory.

TRINE estimates that by 2026, this solution can save 3.7 million tons of CO2 annually.